Ukiyo-e: Pictures of the Floating World Edo Period ... - GSAVisualarts

Ukiyo-e: Pictures of the Floating World
Edo Period: 1616-1868
Genre of painting and woodblock printing
17 th – 19 th centuries. It’s original context
referenced Buddhist world view and
alluded to the ephemerality of man’s
experience
Later referenced hedonistic
preoccupations with the present: latest
fashions, life styles of urban culture and
chicness

Standard Print sizes:
o-oban (large oban)
60 cm x 32 cm
24 in x 12.8 in
oban
39 cm x 26 cm
15.6 in x 10.4 in
nagaban
52 cm x 25 cm
20.8 in x 10 in
chuban
28 cm x 15 cm
11.2 in x 6 in
hosoban
30 cm x 15 cm
12 in x 6 in
Hashira-e (pillar print)
70 cm x 12 cm
28 in x 4.8 in

After 1789 the shogunate established measures requiring that all prints be
inspected and stamped with official seals of approval ( a function of the
publishers’ association

1) Process of producing and distributing the prints are compared to the process
of wet rice cultivation (a theme introduced fr. China)
2) The artists (including Utamaro himself have been depicted in the guise of
famous Geisha

1) Publisher (hanmoto) contacts an artist with a proposal for a new project
2) Ukiyo-e artist (e-shi) produces a black-ink preliminary design (hanshita-e) on thin
paper and sends it to the Publisher.
3) Publisher applies for permission to proceed and the association censors design, if
it is accepted it is stamped with seals of approval and returned to the publisher
4) Publisher offers a commission to prepare woodblock fr the design to an engraver
.
5) Engraver (hori-shi) spreads design over woodblock of hard cherry and tracing the
lines carves a woodblock that duplicates the design and has register marks (kento) for
color printing
6) Printer (suri-shi) prints a number of monochrome prints for the artist to indicates
colors he wants for each part of the print

1) Publisher indicates the number of colors to be used according to his budget
2) Artist indicates on the monochrome prints the portions to be colored, one sheet for
each color
3) Engraver carves woodblocks for each of the colors selected by the artist
4) Printer completes first samples of complete print
5) Artist makes any needed corrections
6) Printer prints as many copies as the publisher has commissioned
7) Publisher begins to sell finished prints in his print shop

Kitagawa Utamaro,
The Cultivation of Edo’s Famous Produce,
the Brocade Woodblock Print,
ca. 1800 oban size, published by Tsuruya

Prints were a cooperative effort btwn
artists, engravers, printers, and
publishers
Adachi Institute of Woodblock Prints

Print 1: artist’s outline printed in sumi (black ink)

Prints 2-5: light colors that cover fairly wide areas of the print

This is what the print wood look like after going trough the above steps

Prints 6-9 are used to print the scene outside the window

This is how the print would look after undergoing steps 1-9

Steps 10-13: these woodblocks are primarily used to apply the colors
of the kimono worn by the woman standing to the extreme right

After steps 1-13. The colors are still primarily light ones, but the print is
nearing completion

Blocks 14-17 apply brilliant colors remaining for the female figures
kimonos and the color of the furnishings of the room

The last block prints the title and the artist’s signature in heavy black ink

The complete print (colors exaggerated on the right)

Hishikawa Moronobu
Okumura Masanobu
Suzuki Harunobu
Utagawa Toyoharu
Torii Kiyonaga
Kitagawa Utamaro
Utagawa Toyokuni
Toshusai Sharaku
Katsushika Hokusai
Utagawa School:
Utagawa Kunisada
Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Utagawa Hiroshige